How much of the burden of schizophrenia is alleviated by treatment?

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Abstract
A conclusion of the Andrews team’s research, not directly referred to in this article, is that the cost-effectiveness of the treatment of schizophrenia in reducing disease burden is substantially lower than that of the treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders. There are problems with their conclusion, however. The Andrews team’s approach to calculating the years lived with disability (YLDs) averted by treatment is a new and relatively untested field. The team computes treatment-related changes in the disability weight in the YLD formula from estimates of the effect size of interventions in the published research on clinical interventions. Although this methodology may be adequate for measurement of the burden of anxiety and depression, it is likely that, in the case of schizophrenia, much of the burden of the illness is not captured by the approach.